When faced with the tough choice of either seeking the truth at the risk of his life or cozying up to an all-powerful ruler in return for comfort and security, 17th-century French mathematician and problem gambler Blaise Pascal didn't think twice before doubling down on the latter. "If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing," Pascal wrote famously, adding that only an idiot on the order of Jimmy the Greek could pass on that sort of action. Given such great odds, Pascal concluded with Pete Rose-like certitude, "We are compelled to gamble." "Pascal's Wager" became the model for the self-serving justifications and moral hedging that have characterized the French nation ever since (indeed, we need only substitute "Hitler" and "win" at the appropriate moments in Pascal's formulation to understand France's collaborationist strategy during World War II). --Suck, 1999-11-23
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